GUIDE TO POSTAL SMUGGLING
A little of this I've written myself, some of it has come from various places on the net, and I added all the links. I've had this info on several hard drives over the years. I've searched, but can't find much of it anywhere on the net anymore... and I sure don't want it to be lost forever, so I now deliver it back to the general public. 1. How to Make the USPS Work for YOU & also Canada Post 2. What You Should Know About PO Boxes 3. What Happens Between Your Mailbox and Their Mailbox 4. What You Should Know About Foreign Mail 5. Misc. 6. UK Mail: Shipping from Overseas
How to Make the USPS Work for YOU (w/ comments below) by Postmaster February 27th, 2003
First of all I'd like to thank everyone here for providing such a wealth of information regarding stealth and security. However, I seem to notice very frequently that misinformation is spread regarding the USPS and their handling of mail. Here are the first few tidbits of information you may be able to use to further protect yourself.
First and foremost in my opinion is to inform everyone about first-class mail and the family of products that fall under its term. First-class mail includes first-class letters and parcels, priority, and express mail. Do not consider foriegn air-mail to be "first-class" because once it leaves our shores it won't be treated as such. First-class mail is protected against unlawful search and seizure in the same way that your home is. Because of this, any law enforcement agency will need to procure a warrent to open this mail. Because of this information, I have driven across a few states with 50 romulan clones in a box with addresses and stamps on it. I knew if I got pulled over, while they may or may not find probable cause to search the car, they will need a warrent to open the box. This also means that if you are mailing anything that doesn't smell like pot (seeds, mushrooms, etc) you should mail it first-class mail and package it very well. I'll cover packaging a little later.
First-class mail goes on airplanes. Priority often goes by FedEx planes now that we have a cooperative contract with them. Otherwise, it goes on whatever private carrier we can find at the time. Because of this, there's never any telling which plane things will go on or when they'll leave. I don't send pot by plane because it's not predictable. I can send things to California via first-class mail because I know that from my area to LA all our mail gets transported via truck.
Secondly I'll cover standard mail. This covers "parcel post" mail, or ground mail, which includes Standards A and B mail, Media (book) Mail, and Bound Printed Matter. This is mail that won't be going on airplanes and won't get sniffed by any dogs for any reasons. This is your safer bet.
I recently received a nice quarter ounce from a friend in California via Media Mail. I had him wrap the baggy tight with reynold's wrap, then re-wrap it with some cayenne pepper in the wrapping so that in the off case a dog does sniff at it, it will most likely get this and ruin its sense of smell for a week or so, but it's not a foolproof method. Then, the baggy went into a video cassette clamshell, which was then taped closed, placed in a box with stuffing, and each seam of the box was covered with a sturdy tape. I personally like self-adhesive THICK brown strapping tape for its durability and ability to seal well. This was sent via Media Mail and took about 4 days to arrive. I've received an ounce at a time and I know I could receive more, but I don't want to do it too frequently because it's just not the greatest idea.
When packaging anything, make sure you seal each seam. This not only prevents scent from escaping better than if you hadn't, but it also prevents tampering and prevents the parcel from being opened. If the person on the other end knows that you will cover each seam, when you receive it make sure each seam is still sealed. Also, for further security, write something along where the tape and the box comes together. This will provide another indicator as to whether or not the parcel has been tampered with. If the letters don't match up perfectly, you know the tape has been taken off.
In all my many years of postal experience I've only TWICE seen law enforcement ask to watch mail coming to a certain recipient, and he was dealing in kiddie porn. I see plenty of contraband go through the mailstream, and I'm able to tell this because I've received so much of it in my years. Basically I believe it's safe to mail most contraband if you're smart about it. Postal workers do not receive training on identifying contraband other than bombs. I've never seen a parcel break open with contraband in it. You can see where I'm going with this.
Concerning return addresses: [Always put a valid return address that can be delivered to! That does not have to be your address, just one that can be delivered to.] I would suggest you do not mail things to people other than yourself [or fictitious names at a proper address]. Here's why. If the letter carrier does not know the name at the address, they often times have the parcel or letter red handed and sent back to wherever it came from. If the return address isn't real, the mail goes to the San Francisco Mail Reclamation Unit (aka Dead Letter Office), where it is opened in an attempt to identify who it needs to go to. Obviously if there is contraband inside they will contact the postal inspectors who have the highest successful prosecution rate of any law enforcement agency in the world.
Here's an addendum: all that discussion about search warrants and first class mail does not apply when the package enters the U.S. for a foreign country. Customs can search whatever they want. (In legal jargon, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy at an international border.) More details at the Foreign Mail section.
INTERNAL CANADIAN MAIL
"Lothar" says: Canadian postal systems are pretty much the same. Lots of dope goes through the mail, and you rarely hear of it getting found unless by accident.
Searches are typically a balance between a reasonable expectation of privacy and either national interest or safety of the carrier. The other issue that frequently enters the fray is the "agent of the state" concept. I wonder if there were ever to be a request by the police or other state law enforcement agency to search domestic mail, if the search could successfully excluded as a breach of rights on the basis that the postal carrier was acting at the behest of the state. Certainly you have a reasonable expectation that your letters won't be read and the gifts to your family members will not be ripped open.
In any case that I have seen that involved the mail, the police themselves had to be present, warrant in hand, to search the item. I don't think any postal employee has the authority to search regular mail for any reason.
"Postmaster" says: As far as I understand it, Canada Post is almost completely privatized, but has nearly identical regulations to the USPS. You said "I don't think any postal employee has the authority to search regular mail for any reason." This isn't true in the US, so I don't know if it is in Canada or not. Parcel post
mail CAN be opened by postal employees. I've opened Book Rate mail on a couple occasions. We call this revenue protection. Once a woman brought me a parcel approximately 4"x4"x42" and said it contained nothing but books, videos, and no personal correspondence, which I knew was an out-andout lie. I informed her of our revenue protection policy and asked her if she wanted to send it another class. She said she didn't think anyone would open it anyways, so she wanted it sent along. After she left, another clerk opened the parcel up, saw a nice Indian rug, re-taped it, and sent it along First Class with the additional postage due. It may seem rotten, but it does happen, so if you do send things along these classes of mail, make sure the contents are well-stealthed.
Lothar says:
Ok, for the Canucks, I have just gone through the Customs Act, the Privacy Act, and the Canada Post Incorporation Act.
So much for taking the afternoon off, I should have just stayed at work.
Here's is what I have learned:
It is an offence for any person (postal employees included) to delay, open or redirect any piece of mail or package. Punishable by up to five years in prison. (Section 48, CPIA)
There is no provision that I can find anywhere that allows for the tampering with of national mail. Canada Post is still a Crown Corporation bound by the Privacy Act.
The exception (obviously) is in the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. - Explosives, corrosives, poisons etc.
Now, incoming and outgoing international mail may be searched, but only by customs employees. According to the various Acts they may not be randomly searched, but can only be opened if they have a reasonable suspicion that there is some kind of contraband inside. I expect that Customs employees don't give a shit about what is reasonable, so expect it all to be searchable.
Customs officers have no jurisdiction over internal mail.
So the minor difference in our mail systems seems to be that if postal employees in Canada open your mail for any reason other than genuine safety concerns, they get fired, and charged with an offence.
mediumdave says:
Thanks for clarifying that. It sounds like mail coming into the U.S. ought to come in ground...how do foreign shippers specify what class of mail a letter or parcel is once it enters the states? Or can they even do that?
Lothar says:
It sounds like there are actually some difference between Canadian and U.S. law on this. Whether or not there is a "search" is only based on the "reasonable expectation of privacy" standard (under U.S. law). To some extent there is a "social balancing" element built into this in that search and seizure law says that some expectations are "unreasonable" (e.g. not recognized by society). But the actual test is just an objectively reasonable subjective expectation of privacy. There are also "exigency" measures; this is where the "Terry stop" stuff (reasonable suspicion based stop and frisk) comes from, and is also the basis for DUI and escape-convict roadblocks. The idea is basically (this is not legalese) that really important social needs justify a little bit of an intrusion, as long as it’s not really directed at anyone in particular.
Agents of the government. Based on what I have seen in your post other places around here, it sounds like U.S. and Canadian law are basically the same on this. A non-government agent acting at the behest of the government triggers all of the constitutional search and seizure doctrines. Basically, there's no difference between "official" and "unofficial" government agents. The post office isn't an "unofficial" agent of the government that could be asked to help out by police, the Post Office is the government -so all the protections apply.
Peace, -Dave
Lothar
Similar test here. The defense bar went crazy arguing the arbitrary detention and search issues when the impaired driving programs were started up. Eventually the Supreme Court set it out in R. v. Ladouceur the public interest vs. individual rights issue.
Since we do not have automatic exclusion of evidence rules, there is always a test under section 24(2) of the Charter as to whether the admission of evidence obtained in a breach of rights should be excluded or included.
Inculpatory evidence, such as confessions, is almost always excluded, but "real" evidence (the knife, the bag of coke) may be included notwithstanding the breach, depending on the seriousness of the circumstances.
Recently the Court of Appeal for Ontario decided that since marijuana is not considered a serious drug by Canadians anymore, it should almost always be excluded even though it is "real" evidence.
This was a very important turn of events that almost no one seems to be aware of.
mediumdave says:
Give me a cite to that case, I'd like to look over it. Really. Although we have categoric exclusion of unlawfully siezed evidence, in practice our worlds may still be close. The Supreme Court has been more conservative in recent years and has carved a number of "exceptions" to exclusions. There is an exception for an unlawful seizure made upon a defective warrant obtained in good faith, there is an exception for evidence that was in the process of being discovered, there is an exception if the police are able to sufficiently purge themselves of the violation. So even though exclusion is in theory automatic, in real life there are a number of exceptions that essentially go "this wasn't that bad of a violation" and let evidence in. I am not aware of any aspect of federal constitutional law that distinguishes between real and inculpatory evidence, though there are of course
the Miranda warnings that apply only to interrogations. So I find it interesting that in their actual function the two systems are pretty similar.
Lothar says:
Here's Stillman, relatively new but still on point. The older cases I cannot find online and will have to look up when I get to my office. I should have most of them on my saved office computer when I was still using Quicklaw (Same as Westlaw)
EDIT: Here's a good overview of the situation from the Justice (FEDS) Canada site, with all relevant cases cited:
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/dept...ection24ss2.htm
If you're interested in our rights to counsel cases and the attendant analysis in terms of exclusion of evidence the most frequently cited cases are "Bartle" and "Prosper"
You should be able to find them online here:
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/
Oh yeah, and Stillman:
http://www.hrcr.org/safrica/freedom...y/stillman.html
What You Should Know About PO Boxes
by "Postmaster" - February 2003
PO Boxes are a great tool for receiving contraband. Personally, I have opened a few boxes for myself under a variety of pseudonyms over the years. My favorite was a box whose boxholder's name were "Norton Leight", PO Box 5
You probably can't get PO Boxes under assumed names like I can, because you need photo ID. What you do not need is a driver's license, a state ID card is just fine and easier to obtain. I don't suggest you use any type of identity theft to procure this or the PO Box, because this is what the Postal Inspectors are going after most feverantly right now. However you can get it, get a state ID card with an assumed name. The next item you want to have is a piece of mail going to an assumed street address. This is often very useful if you can't get any "regular" photo ID. Clerks often times will allow private sector photo ID's such as a business's id badge, but in that case they want a letter going to your "street address". Obviously you don't want to use your real street address. The letter has to be round-dated or otherwise cancelled. There are two easy ways to get this.
First off, I'd suggest you find the address you want to use. Public buildings, vacant houses, etc are great for this. Make out your professionally printed or otherwise professional-looking letter, and take it into a post office OTHER than the one you want the PO Box at. There's two ways to get it cancelled and back to you. First and safest is to just give it to the clerk and ask for it to be round-dated right then and there so you're certain it will be accepted on time (say it's a credit card bill, etc). Once it's round dated, act like you're mad at yourself for not enclosing the check or something of that sort. 9 out of 10 times you'll get it back from them. Just walk out at that point. Tell them you forgot your checkbook or whatever if they ask. Most likely, they won't ask.
The second and more risky method is to go into a very small rural office, where there is usually only one person in the office at any given time. Make up a reason to get them to look in the back of the office. A good excuse for this is to get indignant about your social security check not arriving yet. Even though they go back, they're probably just getting coffee or blowing you off. We know when they arrive; we don't lose them, whatever. Just get him out of the way. There will be a round-dater stamp by his window console. Use it. Use it real quick. Even if you're on camera, the picture will be so horrible that you will NOT be identified. The tapes they use are 24 hour tapes and have horrible quality, and are reused on top of that.
Once you have the PO Box, subscribe to a couple regular magazines or get a few typical catalogs delivered there regularly so that everything seems legit. When you check your box, regularly make an issue to look inside to see if there is a piece of paper hanging from the back of the box. On the two occasions I've been told to keep track of names and addresses going to a box, the inspectors have a "cover" placed on the box, a piece of paper hung from the back informing the box clerk to write down this information. Papers are often hung just saying the box holder’s names, so you need to make sure you recognize the paper hung from the back. Pull the paper off the first time you see it. It's normal for them to fall off, so don't sweat this.
Don't check your box at regular intervals. Do it on an odd schedule. Small rural offices often have box lobbies that are open 24 hours a day. Take advantage of this. Driving in the dark lets you know if you're being tailed, and you can mix up the hours you check the box this way. If you're going to get pinched, they will usually follow you to the box when they know you're going to open it, then they pop you then and there. Once, a kiddie porn trader got pinched from using a box in my office. They knew exactly when he would be checking his box. He drove in from halfway across the state a couple times a week on business and checked the box at a regular time. He was stupid, and not just for trading disgusting kiddie porn.
They kept his box opened for months and months, using it to bring down people worldwide. Make sure correspondents of yours know if you get pinched. Create a way to let them know. Let them know whenever something is going to be sent to them. If it's out of schedule, they know to clean house. Just be more careful than you need to be.
PO Boxes are great. I always get my contraband there, and I'd suggest you use them to your advantage.
[UPS Store, PostNet, etc.] are much more lax as far as security goes. You can get private mail boxes at Mailboxes Etc [now known as the UPS Store], but I don't trust them. Someone making minimum wage has a lot less to lose by opening a package to see what's inside than a federal employee making $25-35 an hour. When you open a box at these places, they are required to take the same information that a regular post office requires, and they have to file it with whatever post office the Mailboxes Etc's zip code falls under. Postal inspectors also find it much easier to strongarm these guys into thinking that they have the right to get whatever info, so don't think you're going to be any safer there.
Comments: By "round-dated," I believe he means "postmarked" or "cancelled." That is, it has to have an official Post Office stamp across the stamp area that displays date of submission to the office. It verifies that the piece of mail was actually handled and delivered by the USPS.
What Happens Between Your Mailbox and Their Mailbox (w/ comments / discussion) by "Postmaster" Reposted @ TheShroomery.org on December 11, 2004
this is a repost from my original post at http://www.overgrow.com/edge/showthr...ght=postmaster
I've been trying to think of further ways I can help people out as far as being able to mail pot, and I guess one avenue I should touch on is what happens to a letter and what happens to a small parcel once it's in the mailstream. This has a good amount of bearing on how you should package whatever you're sending, because I think most people don't realize just how easily packages and letters get ripped up, broken open, become soggy and tears, etc.
First off let's talk about letter-mail. When you drop a letter off at your local post office or in your mailbox, it makes its way into automatic cancelling machines. These machines do almost everything automatically, from facing the mail upright, cancelling the stamp(s) on the letter, to sortation of the mail. Why this is pertinent is that most people don't realize that a photo is taken of almost EVERY letter passing through the mailstream. At up to 60 pieces per minute, each machine can take a picture of the letter, create a unique florescent id tag that is places on the lower-back of the letter, and it runs through OCR software to sort it automatically. Lots of people think you can just write "hand cancel" and that it won't make it through these machines. Think again. Basically if you DO place things in envelopes, such as seeds, be careful. I don't know why I haven't seen more torn-open letters from a certain Canadian seed supplier, because their stealth method would almost certainly stop up the machine and probably tear open the envelope, leaving you screwed. Once it goes through this machine, it may go through a few others before it's sent out to your local main office unit, where it's sorted according to zip code and then further to the letter carrier, and even as the route is to be delivered, called "delivery point sequencing". Just be careful when you send letters of any sort, I'd say each machine tears on average 50 a day, and most main offices have upwards of 30 or 40 of these sorting machines.
If you're sending a flat-mail piece, such as a large flat manilla envelope, the method of sortation is almost identical to letter-mail. Small parcels are not.
Small parcels make their way from your local office to a main office unit, where it makes it to a Small Parcel and Bundle Sorter, aka SPBS. At this machine, a clerk sits at a console, takes each small parcel, looks at the zip code, and keys in a four-digit code according to mail type and zip code. This is one place where lots of mail is damaged, and it's what you have to look out for. Everyone has had mail arrive in poor condition. It's just a fact of life. However, when you're sending contraband, this is NOT AN OPTION. The small parcels make their way to the clerk via automated belts. Mail of all sizes and weights get dropped, dumped, smashed, and otherwise manhandled together. At one time I knew someone had an ounce or so in a thick padded envelope because I could smell it through a tear that was caused by a large parcel smashing into it. I covered the hole with thick brown tape as a favor to a fellow brave heart.
The mail falls into sacks or hampers, and can end up anywhere, under whatever. Mail sometimes becomes waterlogged for SOME reason, and a tear is very likely to occur when this happens. This is why I make sure contraband is placed inside something rigid like an opened VHS cassette or even a VHS clamshell, which is then taped totally closed. I place this in a larger container, not rigid usually, something padded and more sublime looking. The mail eventually makes its way to your local office, where your carrier delivers it to you.
Basically what I'm telling you is that YES, your mail DOES GET MISHANDLED FREQUENTLY. I used to get quite disgusted at how often machinery tears mail up, but in the grand scheme of things, every man, woman, and child on the PLANET would have to sort mail by hand for two hours a day just to keep up with the sheer volume, which NEVER stops. Not even on holidays and Sundays. Your mail goes through machines whether you want it to or not. Just be careful, don't think it's going to get hand sorted daintily from one sack to another. Package it so well that the person on the other end has to put out some effort to open it. It's just better that way.
I have to say first class mail is the way to go. With first class, chances are GOOD that it's going to go by truck. We have a "strategic' partnership with FedEx that lets us send our Priority mail on their planes, and I don't really know what happens when the mail goes on them. First class is normally protected against searches without a warrant, just make sure you package your stuff extremely well so it will not possibly come open even when our 70 year olds drop 40lb boxes on it from four feet up. Make sure it doesn't smell, I once saw a hazardous materials guy called in to take care of a particularly smelly package, which he confiscated and sent a letter to the recipient telling him he was being mailed something illegal and "do not do it again". I think FedEx and UPS isn't protected like USPS is, we have postal inspectors in the major facilities that try to incriminate employees so they usually get the people that pick out of the mailstream. First class mail, NOT media mail or library mail or priority mail or express mail (though priority and express have the same legal protection as first class, they go on airplanes).
Sorry if that was too long-winded, I just don't want my brothers and sisters getting pinched because soand-so didn't package that ounce of KGB as well as they should have.
Possibly illegal post office practice: I had something at work at the post office scare me, since I've been known to mail contraband, but it was also a little pathetic too. A co-worker brought me a legal sized envelope with a bulging area that felt like beans and smelled like pot really strong out of the gaps on the corner of the flap. It was quite obvious what was inside, and the co-worker placed the envelope in a HAZMAT receptacle. The hazardous materials employee took the envelope, opened it up (I believe this is illegal), found a small sack of pot with a bunch of whole coffee-beans (not grounds) around it. He gives the sack to another supervisor to destroy (I have no idea what check goes on here to make sure it is destroyed) and he leaves a note in the envelope and mails it away.
The note says that someone was mailing you contraband and that we expect it not to happen again. The postal inspectors aren't involved unless it's a large amount found. What scares me here is the issue of sanctity of first-class mail. I believe the only people that can open a first-class mailpiece that doesn't appear to contain an immediate hazardous material inside it are postal inspectors and law enforcement with a search warrant. It's nice to know that with small amounts that it's not really noted, but it's also scary to think that joe schmo can look/smell/feel your mail and decide he thinks it's pot. What if a cat pees on your envelope and he opens it thinking there's meth in it?
The envelope didn't contain hazmat, it didn't exhibit any hazmat identifiers. It wasn't opened by a postal inspector, it was opened by a hazmat employee who I don't think had real legal reason to open it. But you are right, the person was an idiot to do it that way in the first place.
I guess the important point to make right now is, if you're mailing pot, SEAL it and have the outside completely clean, hopefully with rubbing alcohol. Be very careful and don't be high when you do it, so you can smell it objectively. <-- a good method: put it in your car the night before and the next day see if you can smell it when you get in the car.
Also, the Post Office does NOT make little cuts into envelopes to test for anthrax. There isn't even equipment that can detect it that quickly, since the letter sorting machines go upwards of 60 letters per second. I assume your friends that worked there are casual (IE temporary and not career employees)
I've come across quite a few seed envelopes and various other forms of drug-related contraband and known EXACTLY what they were but didn't disturb them or alert the inspectors.
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Someone says:
I have ordered spores under the name "Job Applicant" before out of paranoia. Might be wiser than an allias. alder
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Some Stoned Guy Says:
Speaking from experience. I wont say how much was mailed, or where from, but I will mention that it was from a foreign overseas country, to the states. I really don’t agree with putting this information on here, because it can be spot trends to catch people in the end. I will mention some things though. Make sure you put it in something air tight that will not move. If mailing it over an ocean, mail it parcel post, not air. It will take a lot longer (4 weeks in my case) because it is on a boat, but it is also a lot cheaper, and is with a lot of more cargo, so chances of being caught are slim. Mask the smell, don’t use something like pepper over it, and mask it INSIDE another food product. Use a few containers. Have some decoys. Of course use a fake return address, but also make sure it is someone’s real address to avoid questions. Mark the real contents of what is inside (except for the contraband), so in case it is opened, it will not raise alarm. They are NOT allowed to open food product containers, that’s why i said to use them (unless they smell the reek of course.) So wrap your contraband well, tight, and many times. Don’t use aluminum foil, if x-rayed it's not good to show up hollow balls of foil. Keep care.
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Postmaster says:
Stonedguy: you're wrong about them not being able to open food containers. Customs are allowed to open anything that seems suspicious. I recall once about 20 large parcels from Laos containing dried fish. About 5 of them were opened and resealed by customs. The only thing that customs are not allowed to inspect is personal letter-mail correspondence.
The only thing I would think they might not open out of courtesy would be perishable sealed goods like cans of kippered fish or something similar.
[/b]ookiitama says:[/b]
you said if you have correct postage, just drop it in a blue box. If the item is over 16 ounces in weight, it needs to be presented to a live postal employee to be round-dated. This isn't the USPS's rule, it's the FAA's.
Everyone, never mail parcels without a return address. It doesn't have to be your return address, but make sure you have one, and I'd suggest a real one. If for some reason the parcel ultimately undeliverable, it will be opened at the mail reclamation center, and when they see there's pot in it, they will contact the postal inspectors who WILL investigate the person it was initially addressed to. I have a deal of admiration for postal inspectors, because of all law enforcement agencies, they're the only one that I truly fear. Nothing's scarier than a postal worker always carries a gun on them.
Never use excessive postage. This shows that you didn't want to go to the post office to mail it. Almost every mail bomb has had excessive postage on it.
someone says: Don't post from a local P.O. because even if the other end denies knowledge, they can just check his phone records to see who has been calling from that location.
What You Should Know About Foreign Mail (w/ discussion below) by "Postmaster" - March 1st, 2003
I don't have the most experience with foreign mail, but I do have some insight as an insider. There are only a few things I can convey that come to mind, but if I can come up with any others I'll certainly post them.
Note: Mail entering the US from a foreign country is not "first class" mail, which is why it wasn't mentioned in the posting. There is no first-class foreign mail, it is either air mail or surface mail (up to four imperial pounds in weight) or air parcel post and surface parcel post. I'm omitting M-Bags and other oddball foreign mailings because nobody here is going to use them. I did say, though, that mail leaving our shores going to other countries is not "first-class" mail, I should have said that no foreign mail whatsoever is "first-class". Everyone here should know customs can open whatever they want.
Concerning receiving mail from abroad... Firstly, don't have pot sent to you from a foreign country unless you absolutely have to. The US Postal Inspection Service brings around 1000-1500 drug charges to prosecution and has the highest successful prosecution rate of any law enforcement agency in the civilized world. While most of those charges are brought about due to domestic mailings, a good portion of the powdered drugs make their way into the states via the post office. If you do have to get contraband sent to you, make sure you know what you're doing. Customs usually opens on average 20% or less of the parcels coming into the states. They don't open letter-mail and they usually won't open international express mail. What they do open are parcels coming in from suspect nations, such as Columbia, Costa Rica, due to the high US population there, Holland, Spain, Mexico, and a small handful of other nations notorious for drug trade.
If you have to choose one time of year to get things mailed to you, try to have it sent to you during December. Customs usually green-tapes or orange-tapes over parcels that they have opened, and places a triple-triangle symbol denoting that it has been inspected by customs. During December I usually don't see a single small parcel with either of these. Make sure the person sending the contraband fills out a customs declaration completely. Make sure the customs declaration isn't for any items worth more than $50 or so, otherwise inspection is more likely due to customs charges. If an item is available readily domestically, a customs duty is often charged on the item. Obviously, good stealth is suggested. Don't buy one of those Glade cans with the secret bottom and expect it to arrive. Nobody mails Glade from Europe to the states. I have considered having hashish sent from Holland by wrapping it in tin foil, then encasing it in chocolate, placing it in a Dutch chocolate wrapping, and mailing it that way. Even if it is opened, it obviously looks like Dutch chocolate, which is something commonly mailed from Europe. It behooves you to also have professional looking mailers, with address labels instead of hand-scrawled addresses.
In Sweden, American cigarettes are sold for around 1/3 the average cost of purchasing them domestically. A LARGE number of these mailers are sent out from Sweden, so much that it wouldn't make sense for customs to open a single one since they're highly recognizable. If you purchase cigarettes from Sweden you know which padded envelope I'm speaking of, and if you're in Europe and want to send contraband back, it would be a good idea to re-use one of these that you have opened without it looking as if it had been opened. Just take one with you over there in your luggage.
Any time you receive contraband, as a way to cover your ass, I would suggest you enclose a note such as "Sorry I'm late for your birthday, here's a present I remember you used to love that I came across and wanted to send you." This way the contraband is sent to you without your prior knowledge, and even if you are caught leaving the post office with it, you have a decent defense. A mushroom spore supplier, The Hawk's Eye, was busted some years back for having hashish sent to his PO Box on a regular basis. If you're going to do this sort of thing, don't make it regular. Don't have things sent the same way, either. Also, don't send things by registered mail unless the item won't leave the country unless it's registered (ie most impoverished nations, where mail is often stolen by postal employees because there isn't a paper trail). Registered mail has to be signed for, and you don't want to sign for things unless you don't have to. Express mail is the same way, but you can specify "carrier signature release", making the letter carrier your approved agent to sign for the package.
As far as sending things out of the country, I do not have much experience with that. Canada regularly opens parcels that are heavy and/or have expensive items written on the customs declaration, because they charge a customs duty quite regularly. Obviously people usually won't send pot to Canada from the states, so this probably isn't an issue. The same suggestion regarding the "birthday" note applies here too. Fill out the customs declaration fully, and make the item look professional. When you bring the item to the post office (all foreign mail MUST have a round-date showing that it was presented to a live postal employee per FAA regulations), ask the clerk if there are any items that are prohibited in that country. Italy is notorious for its strict importation regulations, such as "no toys unless wholly made of wood, no haberdashery, no Italian leather (wtf?), no this, no that, etc etc etc". Better safe than sorry.
I would suggest you do not mail things to people other than yourself. Here's why. If the letter carrier does not know the name at the address, they often times have the parcel or letter red handed and sent back to wherever it came from. If the return address isn't real, the mail goes to the San Francisco Mail Reclamation Unit (aka Dead Letter Office), where it is opened in an attempt to identify who it needs to go to. Obviously if there is contraband inside they will contact the postal inspectors who have the highest successful prosecution rate of any law enforcement agency in the world. If it's going to go back to Thailand if it's not received you might be fairly safe since I believe if it's unclaimed there it becomes abandoned, but in other instances you can see where this practice is like sleeping in a lion's den.
Mailing anything from Thailand is stupid. You'll be lucky to find any good weed there anyway. The islands down south always have a good supply of Nepali hash.
Foreign mail is not US First-Class mail and therefore is subject to being opened. What I think a [foreign marijuana] seed company should do is to find a trusted US postal "insider" that can directly drop the seeds into the mail stream when payment to an out-of-country liaison is confirmed. This way there should be no possible way to open the package legally.
I used to work as a postman. A postie has a set run, he gets to know a lot of very detailed information about the neighborhood. He is the only one with current info on who lives where. Take a good look at your postie, get to know them. A postman could deliver packages to a vacant house that he knows has been vacant for a long time [but he won't normally].
Question I suggested a few methods on another thread (about sending hash from Acapulco), and suggest also that my candle method is a great way to go about it. What do you think about that? I have another question. When I sent those candles, I sent them from an APO in Germany. Of course I had to fill out a customs declaration. How often do packages coming from APOs overseas get inspected? I sent it priority mail, too. I thought it was a safe method, but since you have inside knowledge, how safe was it really?
Answer I hadn't read the thread about the candle idea, but someone PM'd me and asked me about it. I think it's a great idea, even better than my chocolate idea! When I finally make my first trip to Canada I'll be sure to have a friend source me a nice chunk of hash so I can send it home that way.
As far as APO/FPO mailing, you only need to use the customs declaration because it's going to or coming from a base in a foreign country. The mail does not go through the normal foreign process. Normally, almost all foreign mail goes to a central location where it's sorted out and sent off. I believe the facility is in Chicago but I'm not certain. When you send APO/FPO mail, all of it goes to New York and is sent out from there. There are actual US postal clerks in the military that sort the mail in the foreign country, so I don't believe it ever even touches foreign hands. I've never seen mail to/from an APO/FPO
with customs stamps or tape. Never, but I'm only 99.999% sure that it doesn't go through normal customs. Note: Candles are risky because wax is a dangerous substance to post, it can melt. There are regulations concerning posting items made from wax.
